Blizzard World original map design to be used in OWL stage 3

The OWL panel discussed about the new map introduced in stage 3 - Blizzard World - and confirmed that the teams must battle on the original version.

Stage three of the Overwatch League will start soon, and the first match will take place tonight, April 4th, between Shanghai Dragons and Dallas Fuel.

The fans have been shocked by the news that Blizzard will utilize the “unbalanced” version of Blizzard World, which is extremely biased in favor of the defenders on point B.

There are many possible reasons behind this choice:

Competitiveness. The teams already practiced on the old map, so in order to provide the best experience possible, it wouldn’t be fair to replace it at the last minute. Even a small adjustment can make a big difference in strategy, hero picks, and gameplay at a competitive level.

Technical issues. Note that the map changes are still not live, but only available on the PTR client. Probably the map hasn’t been tested thoroughly, and Blizzard doesn’t want to show an unrefined work during the league.

Honestly, this was expected as for consistency Blizzard is usually maintaining the league one patch behind. If an update takes place in the middle of a stage, it won’t affect pro players until the start of the new one. Again, the new map isn’t even live!

Below, you can have a look at the differences between the Live and the PTR versions of the map. Summarizing, point B has been moved about 10 meters back to help the attackers.

Header image: Blizzard

Vincenzo "Skulz" Milella

Vincenzo is an esports writer with five years of experience. Former head editor for Natus Vincere, he has produced content for DreamHack, FACEIT, DOTAFire, 2P, and more. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.